I had intended on including this video in the post but it keeps interfering with my layout, which is just plain annoying me. Here is a photo of the lovely girls from Celtic Woman.
What fantastic voices they have….they never cease to amaze me. I think they would be amazing live on stage. 
Yes that would be me. Not content with two undergraduate degrees, I’ve gone and got myself a few more letters to add to the end of my name. I can just imagine my headstone reading “here lies Kay…..exhausted physically, stimulated mentally and in debt up to her eyeballs in student fees” followed by a whole list of letters which have little to no meaning to anyone except myself and maybe other people in the industry. *hehe*
Those letters represent a lot of hard work, stress and who knows how much money - I stopped keeping track a long time ago but suffice to say, I will be paying back the government for quite a while yet. Yet they aren’t making it any easier to get me where I want to be. Time and time again I hear the same thing - great on paper but where is my practical experience? It is incredibly frustrating, not to mention disappointing. I know I can do the job and I know that whatever I don’t know now, I will learn very quickly.
Practical experience in a role is important, this I realise, but learning on the job is par for the course of almost any role. In all honesty, sometimes I think that this is the best way to learn how to perform your job properly. I think of all the time that I have spent working in health care and probably about 5% of the knowledge I have now, I learned before I started working in acute care. The rest of it came with time on the job, learning from my colleagues and as situations occurred.
Just as well I am stubborn as an ox because I won’t be deterred. Some things in life are worth fighting for and for me, this is one of them. I WILL get there, no matter how long it takes. All I’m asking for is a chance to prove myself….the rest of the road, I’ll pave for myself.
So you love your moggie friend, would like him to be safe but still let him access the outdoors? Then a cat park is the answer. A cat park is just a safe, contained place outside that your moggie can access night or day by a cat flap. We have a modular CatNip cat park, which we have had for around a year and a half. It exits out of our guest bathroom - it’s a nice surprise for any guests using the shower or tub when the moggies pop through the flap - then goes across to the rock wall into a tower with a few steps and a hammock in it. Running down lengthways towards the front of the house is a tunnel which leads to their outdoor loo - it’s a fairly big area with weedmat on the bottom and we cover the surface liberally with pine bark. The cats think this is great because they don’t have to share their loo with humans and the pine bark deodorises their waste nicely until it is time to be changed. It’s a great setup and makes use of what would normally be a useless area of our property. It would be nice to extend the cat park but this will probably be some time off yet - preferably on a bigger property with more space to put it in.
They even have a roof over their loo to divert rain because we all know how much kitties don’t like getting wet while they’re going to the loo! Well really - would you like getting rained on?
Having the cat park has made life a lot easier for the moggies and for us. It keeps them safe from other animals, stops them preying upon native wildlife and eliminates the need for an indoor litter box entirely. It is also a place for them to escape from visiting nephews and nieces, the carpet cleaning guy or anyone else who they decide isn’t worthy of their company. And of course, it’s great for when I’m mopping the floor and don’t want little paw prints all over my nice clean but still wet floor!
Then there is the cost side of it. Specifically designed cat parks are expensive to install, even if it’s DIY. There are other alternatives though - you can cat proof your fence to stop your cat getting over it or screen in an area of your backyard such as a patio or back verandah. The options are limited only by your imagination and DIY ability. Cat World has some really great ideas on how you can create a safe haven for your cat which still allows you to use your backyard fully.
But for the ultimate cat haven, oh my goodness, if you were a cat, you would definitely want to live here with Jeanette and Murray! Jeanette and Murray are breeders of British Shorthairs and designed this oasis for their cats - kudos to Murray for coming up with such a fantastic design! Their setup features a hidden kitty litter box in a cave, waterfalls and ponds with fish for the kitties to watch, lush vegetation, climbing platforms and walkways throughout. It is simply amazing and I imagine many enjoyable hours are spent in this area with their cats.
Music was a large part of my life growing up so it should come as no surprise that I really love musical theatre. While other kids were getting spoiled with games consoles for presents, my idea of getting spoiled was a trip to Sydney to see Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of Penzance, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Les Miserables or even Miss Saigon. Oh and who could forget South Pacific?
But my favourite would have to be the one I have never ever seen live on stage - Cats. I remember watching an episode of The Nanny when it was in its hey day and one of the quips was always that the producer was the idiot who passed up on Cats. If there was such a person, then they would have well and truly been kicking themselves - by 2000 when if finally closed, the show had been running on Broadway for around 20 years.
Of course Cats is based on T S Eliot’s work, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats - and the following is part of the opening verse, “The Naming Of Cats”.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over and that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover - but THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation, the reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable, effable, effanineffable, deep and inscrutable singular Name.
- T S Eliot
I’m not really big on poetry but this book will always have a place on my shelf.
Most of the time, my cats entertain themselves. But tonight I discovered a way to provide an endless source of amusement for Rosie and for me. Of course the effectiveness of it depends on how sweet and innocent your kitty is. Fortunately Rosie is sweet-natured and gullible…..thus easily entertained. 
The method is simple:
Of course the fun stops when kitty starts chewing at the end of the funnel and starts making a big jolly mess everywhere. *hehe*
Part of the All Women Blogging Carnival 26 November 2007, hosted by Leigh at All For Women.
Even if you love your moggies, I think you would have a good reason to steer clear of this one.
I was quite amused to hear about Oscar, the cat they are dubbing the Grim Reaper. He’s even made it into the New England Journal of Medicine due to his uncanny ability to be present when terminal patients are within hours of passing away. If you do a Google search for “Oscar the Grim Reaper”, you will find he has also made it onto CNN, CBS and NBC. Everyone wants to know - how does he know when people will die? Oscar has been present for the last few hours of around 25 patients at his nursing home in Rhode Island - to the extent that when he lies on someone’s bed, the nursing staff start making calls.
There are all sorts of theories to explain his behaviour such as pheromones or change in routine of the nursing staff to accommodate increasing needs of terminally ill patients. Others are putting it down to a kitty sixth sense. It’s not too unrealistic to believe that this is possible….after all if dogs can smell cancer, is it unreasonable to believe that a cat can detect imminent death?
Whatever the reason, I’m sure that Oscar brings comfort and support to those who are dying. When my time comes, I hope I will spend it with a furry or two by my side. But if I see Oscar all too soon, I will be running for the hills!
We’ve all heard the phrase “a picture paints a thousand words” but I’m pretty sure that the exact opposite is true as well. One word can mean so many things to different people. Every so often I’ll pick up a copy of Australian Digital Photography. I just love the section where readers send in their submissions. Usually they pick a theme - for example, happiness - and you take a shot that you think sums up the word. It is really amazing to see what kind of entries people come up with.
I remember seeing a photo of a moggie sprawled out across a table, eyes half-lidded with the sunlight coming in through the window, shining on the table. I looked at that photo and thought “that’s one contented kitty”.
I don’t often get an opportunity to take a photo of Mojo in those moments. Particularly now that he is older and has decided that 9 years of photos is well and truly enough. *hehe* But occasionally he will let his soft side shine through and providing I’m quick with the camera, I can actually capture that moment. He really is quite sweet when he wants to be, don’t you think?
